1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of alert management for computing events and more particularly to user interface alert bubbles for computing events.
2. Description of the Related Art
Alert management in a computing system refers to the alerting of an end user through a user interface of a computing application of a computing event. Computing applications and systems often encounter computing events worth noting on the part of the end user. Historically, alerting an end user of a computing event required the suspension of an executing application and the presentation of text or a visual display notifying the end user of an alert condition. While effective in a computing environment in which only a single application can execute at a time, for multi-tasking environments, it is not reasonable to permit the interruption of all applications to present an alert.
In traditional windowing operating systems that provide multi-tasking functionality, alert management is incorporated into the operating system itself. In this regard, the operating system can provide an application programming interface (API) for invoking alerts through the operating system user interface. Often in the form of an alert box or an alert balloon, an alert can be provided by invoking a suitable operation through the alert management API. The alert itself, can be raised from a task bar or other similar such structure.
Alerts presented through the task bar of an operating system can suffice for relatively few alerts within a period of time. Notwithstanding, alerts can become intrusive where many alerts issued from multiple applications are presented repeatedly within the operating system interface. In the latter circumstance, end users may be distracted in addressing each alert. To avoid the latter circumstance, advanced alert management logic permits the configuration of the operating system to issue alerts only arising to a specified level of prioritization or importance. An alternative solution is to disable alerts entirely. In both cases, end users may not view important alerts, or otherwise end users may be compelled to view all alerts.
Advanced alert management systems rely upon statistical rating systems to determine whether or not to display an alert. Specifically, each alert can be assigned a rating based upon whether or not an end user had previously designated the alert as one which ought to be suppressed or viewed. The preferences of an end user can change over time, however, and a static rating system can result in the unintended suppression of important alerts. Likewise, a static rating system can result in the unintended viewing of unimportant alerts.
Alert bubbles, the user interface to an alert management system, appear and vanish according to user preferences intended to limit or at least somewhat control the interruptions caused by the appearance of an alert. The manual specification of preferences for alert bubble appearances remains too coarse in application to be truly effective. In this regard, the information presented in an alert bubble generally includes only some text from the content of the alert itself possibly along with a time stamp. Users remain unaware by reference to the alert bubble itself as to whether the underlying alert is of interest. Thus, alert bubbles typically lack enough context to allow the end user to decide whether or not to permit the interruption proposed by the alert bubble.